CHAPTER 1

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO THE FIELD OF
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

• By Michael Beaudoin Leon Ngo

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Chapter 1

• The Field of Organizational Behavior

• Organizations Groups of people who cooperate
  to work toward the same purpose.
• Organizational Behavior (OB) The study of
  what people think, feel, and do in and around
  organizations.
• Why Study Organizational Behavior?
• To help us to understand and predict the behavior
  of an organization, which will help us to
  influence that behavior in the future.
• 2. Everyone can benefit from understanding
  Organizational Behavior, not just managers.
• 3. Organizational Behavior also benefits the
  organizations financial health.

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• Organizational Behavior Trends

• Globalization Economic, social, and cultural
  connectivity (and interdependence) with people in
  other parts of the world.
• Workforce Diversity -
• Surface-Level diversity Observable
  demographic or physiological differences in
  people, such as their race, ethnicity, gender,
  age, and physical disabilities.
• Deep-Level Diversity The differences in the
  psychological characteristics of employees,
  including personalities, beliefs, values, and
  attitudes.
• Consequences of Diversity Organizations can
  gain a competitive advantage by using it to
  improve decision making. However, not
  diversifying can potentially lead to possible
  discrimination against the underrepresented
  groups.

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• Organizational Behavior Trends

• Evolving Employment Relationships
• Work-life balance Minimizing conflict between
  work and non-work demands.
• Employability An employment relationship in
  which people perform a variety of work activities
  rather than hold specific jobs, and are expected
  to continuously learn skills that will keep them
  employed.
• Contingent work Any job in which the
  individual does not have an explicit or implicit
  contract for long-term employment, or one in
  which the minimum hours of work can vary in a
  nonsystematic way.
• Virtual Work
• Virtual work Work practices whereby employees
  use information technology to perform their jobs
  away from the traditional physical workplace
• Virtual teams Teams whose members operate
  across space, time, and organizational
  boundaries, and who are linked through
  information technologies to achieve
  organizational goals.

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• The Five Anchors of Organizational Behavior

• The Multidisciplinary Anchor The idea that the
  field should develop from knowledge in other
  disciplines, not just from its own isolated
  research base.
• The Systematic Research Anchor Belief in the
  value of studying organizations through
  systematic research methods.
• Scientific method A set principles and
  procedures that help researchers to
  systematically understand previously unexplained
  events and conditions.
• Grounded theory A process of developing
  theory through the constant interplay between
  data gathering and the development of theoretical
  concepts.
• The contingency Anchor Understanding that there
  can be too many exceptions for one best way
  theories to always work.
• Contingency approach The idea that a
  particular action may have different consequences
  in different situations.

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• The Five Anchors of Organizational Behavior

• The Multiple Levels of Analysis Anchor Divides
  organizational behavior into three levels of
  analysis individual, team, and organization.
• The Open Systems Anchor Views an organization
  as a complex series of integrated, interdependent
  subsystems.
• Open Systems Organizations that take their
  sustenance from the environment and, in turn,
  affect the environment through their output.
• External Environment and Stakeholders
  Organizations need to adapt to changing
  environments, but not so much that they overspend
  their resources or overshoot stakeholder needs.
• Systems as Interdependent Parts
  Interdependencies can become so complex that a
  minor event in one subsystem may amplify into
  serious unintended consequences elsewhere in the
  organization.

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• End of presentation